Rocking Out

A new craze has crept up and we're getting in on the fun - painting, hiding and hunting rocks!
Lucy and I found one in a tree at the library once and had no idea what it was all about. She pulled it out of the tree, we looked at it but then I told her to put it back because it was probably there for a reason...
I've since learned the "reason" - just to make someone smile! It did make us smile but we now know that we could have kept it (and hidden a new one) or taken it to a new hiding spot.
There is a Facebook group - NKY Hidden Rocks - where people post pics of the rocks they've painted/hidden or found.

We've been painting our own rocks and try to keep some on hand to hide whenever we're out and about...we found a bunch of smooth rocks at Grandma & Troy's river camp and Lucy even collected enough for her Girl Scout troop so they could paint them in a meeting last month.

The first rock Lucy ever found and took - once we knew what was going on! - was a special coupon rock! The Learning Express in Crestview Hills has gotten in on the fun and have painted and hidden coupon rocks in the area - hers had an underwater scene on the front and a 25% off coupon on the back. This one was also found at the Cold Spring library.
She was beyond excited and had tons of fun shopping at the Learning Express to make use of her coupon - she chose a mermaid tail for American Girl doll!

Maxy found his first rock - a football - outside of Walmart on day soon after.

Of course they love finding rocks, but we haven't found too many and they seem to enjoy hiding them just as much. Some people are very artistic, including Daddy!

He made the Rudolph and Clarice rocks...Max usually likes to choose one color per painting session and paints a plateful of rocks...one day, he painted several of them brown so I attempted to turn a little one into the poop emoji but Dave got way more into transforming Maxy's primed rocks.

We've been to new parks and places, just hoping to spot a rock...we went to the Alexandria Community Park a few times. My auntie had taken Lucy when she was small but I'd never been and what a shame! It's not too far and it's a great park and we've been several times in the past few months to make up for 6 years of not going!

There is a path around a lake and we've walked around it a couple of times and once we took the scooters. We've never found a rock there, but we've hidden several!

One day I painted several Shopkins rocks to surprise Lucy and make her smile and she loved them so much, she's refused to hide them!

We've have the most luck at the library - one day Max and I went to drop off some books while Lucy was across the street at soccer practice and he spotted two rocks! He grabbed one and was so happy but we left the other. After practice, he was telling Lucy about it and she wanted to go back to see if the other one was still there and it was so she snagged it!

Here are some of the rocks we've painted and hidden around town:

This was another one Max started -
that day, he painted a bunch blue and I added a sailboat to this one and an anchor to another one

They get really into hiding them - Lucy and Dave went to Pioneer Park one day and hid a bunch they'd painted with My Little Pony cutie marks on them...she wanted him to hide several far up in trees...one person posted in the FB group that the one they found was "hidden very well!" so Dave & Lucy think it was the one the put up super-high.

Silly little artist working on a batch of green rocks (that I turned into aliens, Frankensteins and flower gardens) plus another of Dave's amazing creations).